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Timed Puzzle Bonus
https://www.calcudoku.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=45
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Author:  clm  [ Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

sneaklyfox wrote:
clm wrote:
Yes, I feel that presently there are two pairs of "suspicious" "twin players" but I could be wrong (circumstantial facts) and in this case (this is not a bug in the software) I can "say the sin but not the sinner". It's just a curiosity ... anyway the very important thing is to solve the puzzles and get fun with this wonderful site provided by Patrick (additionally being clean and honest is a personal option) (if, after some time, you were still interested in this subject, I could tell you my suspicions and comments in a PM).


... It could be a coincidence that two people on the same computer have about the same level of intelligence.) I guess it would only bother me if they had more points than me ha. I was only surprised that you could be so observant to see that they had similar points and timings, and see that they got on and off at the same time or were both on vacation at the same time and check that it was like that across the whole board all the time. ...


No, I did not observe all those "conditions", I mentioned that those conditions would be the "conditions" for the "twin players" (for instance in an automatic determination, just in case, though perhaps there are other means ... ) but I also think that it is better to let the things as they are, I will not be a crusader against those possible "twin players" (I also thought in other possibilities, for two players, not necessarily having "the same level of intelligence", but being parents and sons, close friends, etc., let's say, understandable situations). But certainly I have observed in different occasions (fortuitously the first time I did it) those coincidences, later I observed, in the "Last 7 Days" ranking, the punctuation growing exactly in the same way till the gold star, the timed times, etc., in those two pairs of cases (by the way, one pair does not participate habitually in the timed puzzles). For instance, if I see "two players" with a flag from a remote Island (and only those two from that country are present in the site) with a very high punctuation and having some of those coincidences I would probably believe it's a case of "twin players" (either if the flag is real or if the flag is fictitious, just assigned by a single user that could be playing from any other country).

It is impossible, without other tools, to get final conclusions. Let me a little digression, suppose you have a photograph of the cool sky, you cann't affirm that some spot there is a binary stellar system or a quasar unless you make different verifications.

Author:  pnm  [ Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

clm wrote:
But certainly I have observed in different occasions (fortuitously the first time I did it) those coincidences, later I observed, in the "Last 7 Days" ranking, the punctuation growing exactly in the same way till the gold star, the timed times, etc., in those two pairs of cases (by the way, one pair does not participate habitually in the timed puzzles). For instance, if I see "two players" with a flag from a remote Island (and only those two from that country are present in the site) with a very high punctuation and having some of those coincidences I would probably believe it's a case of "twin players" (either if the flag is real or if the flag is fictitious, just assigned by a single user that could be playing from any other country).

Yes, the country of origin can be set in the account settings.

In any case, if you do think something is amiss, feel free to send me e-mail,
it'll be relatively easy for me to see what is going on.

I don't think it happens a lot (but I'm haven't looked for it really).

Patrick

Author:  starling  [ Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

sneaklyfox wrote:
I guess it would only bother me if they had more points than me ha.


This is about how I am; until they beat me on the timed puzzles, I really won't care. I mean, it's unsportsmanlike, but it doesn't really affect much.

Unrelated, Patrick, whenever we do get around to changing the point structure in timed, about what do you think it'll move towards?

Author:  pnm  [ Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

starling wrote:
Unrelated, Patrick, whenever we do get around to changing the point structure in timed, about what do you think it'll move towards?

Maybe a combination of time + ranking bonus? (so points for getting a 6 second 4x4, say, and
points for the daily ranking).

But I'll have to think about it.

Author:  sneaklyfox  [ Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

pnm wrote:
Maybe a combination of time + ranking bonus? (so points for getting a 6 second 4x4, say, and
points for the daily ranking).

But I'll have to think about it.


Sounds reasonable.

Author:  pnm  [ Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

A quick check of some recent results is showing only one case
of someone using two accounts to do timed puzzles. Not sure
what to do about that though (I can't really restrict the number
of timed puzzles done from a single IP, for example).

Patrick

Author:  sneaklyfox  [ Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

pnm wrote:
A quick check of some recent results is showing only one case
of someone using two accounts to do timed puzzles. Not sure
what to do about that though (I can't really restrict the number
of timed puzzles done from a single IP, for example).

Patrick


Maybe an auto email from the site when there are two or more users from the same IP just saying that it is perfectly fine if they are two different people but that if it is the same person then it is unsportsmanlike (in better words than that.) Then we can just hope that if it's the same person that they'll play honourably and stop doing it.

Related, can there be a timer (option of course for those who like it and those who don't like that kind of pressure) on the regular puzzles too not for record or points but for personal interest and "practice" so we know what sort of times we are getting on those?

Author:  starling  [ Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

sneaklyfox wrote:
Related, can there be a timer (option of course for those who like it and those who don't like that kind of pressure) on the regular puzzles too not for record or points but for personal interest and "practice" so we know what sort of times we are getting on those?

I think the way the untimed puzzles are set up might make this impossible;

On the timed puzzles, the cursor and the puzzle load simultaneously.

This isn't always the case on untimed, though, since a lot of the time on slower connections I'll be sitting there for about 15 seconds or so with no visible cursor.

Author:  pnm  [ Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

starling wrote:
On the timed puzzles, the cursor and the puzzle load simultaneously.

This isn't always the case on untimed, though, since a lot of the time on slower connections I'll be sitting there for about 15 seconds or so with no visible cursor.

I'll look into that, because (ideally) each item that could hold the page up (e.g. the ad)
is loaded asynchronously, so you don't have to wait for it.

Patrick

Author:  starling  [ Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Timed Puzzle Bonus

pnm wrote:
starling wrote:
On the timed puzzles, the cursor and the puzzle load simultaneously.

This isn't always the case on untimed, though, since a lot of the time on slower connections I'll be sitting there for about 15 seconds or so with no visible cursor.

I'll look into that, because (ideally) each item that could hold the page up (e.g. the ad)
is loaded asynchronously, so you don't have to wait for it.

Patrick

Wait, this wasn't programmed to be the case? I had assumed it was because it works perfectly so that on timed people are timed from when they see and can enter numbers to when they finish.

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